How would you schedule your week with a 1st, K and PreK?

[oceanseve]

Okay, three kids using different curriculum (well not really a curriculum for Pre-K, but time devoted to only her to work on speech). How would you schedule my week? My plans are in my siggy. I'm feeling overwhelmed.

 

Do I do morning and afternoon blocks? Oldest MWF morning and TR afternoon, second, MWF afternoon and youngest TR morning? Then incorporate the art and science bits I intend to do with them all at once? I like this idea, but they want to do school at the same time. Problem is oldest won't do HER work if sister is doing something different. She has to know what everyone else is doing and I've tried to put them in different rooms. It ends up stressing me out because NO ONE does anything unless I'm with them. Also in the end I'm schooling ALL DAY and I know I'm going to get burnt out quick.

 

What would you do??

[Marie131]

I would plan to be done by lunch every day. With kids that young you don't need to be spending much time doing school. I'd spend an hour doing the 3 Rs with the 1st grader, 30 minutes with the Ker and anything that gets done w/ the preK is bonus. I would combine the kids for all the other subjects and spend no more than an hour doing those daily. I also would only do a 4 day week. These are early years, they don't need to be worked too hard yet. :)

[oceanseve]

lol My 6 would not be happy with two hours a day. She needs around 3 hours to feel "schooled" or I hear about it all day :p I was thinking an hour with the K and the Pre-K is mostly working on getting her to talk more, but it takes one on one time... 30 minutes would be good, I think. I already spend about an hour and a half reading to them at bedtime. Fifteen minutes for each of the younger ones and about an hour for the older. So every day we're talking 4 1/2 hours of actual school. Probably 2 hours before lunch and the other 2 1/2 after. That would probably land 1st with 4 hours a day, K with 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 (depending on how much she pays attention to sister's extra lessons) and an hour for Pre-K..... I think I could make that work. I just need to figure out how to space out the hours.

 

Thanks! I think that's exactly the way I needed to think about it in order to come up with a schedule.

[MinivanMom]

I would do the basics first thing in the morning while the baby is taking a morning nap. Start with the oldest and work your way down to the youngest. The little ones can color or play with something educational while they are waiting for their turn. Then put it all away when the baby wakes up. Save art for Fridays (as a change of pace) and save the reading for bedtime when your husband is there to help. Don't give up the afternoon naptime for homeschooling. Have quiet time for everyone and enjoy the silence. Once you feel rejuvenated you can go spend some one-on-one time with the preschooler for speech before everything gets loud and crazy again.

[homeschoolkitty]

I have a 1st grader coming up an in between Ker/preKer and a toddler and a baby anytime now (plz!-feeling contractions!)

 

I start the day with the combined subjects even as they eat breakfast (mouths bussy chewing can't fight....much) like Bible/aesop, bible memorizing, history, science (epikardia had all that together-nice) then review phonograms as a group (SWR) send middle to brush teeth, do hard phonograms with eldest.

they are all in the dinning room next to kitchen so I am available. then I give older Math (w/ MUS movie first-5min) while I give direction to the middle one how to do his pre-school workbook. then bring the eldest help her teach her on MonTue and Wed if subject is not understood then MUS has review sheets so use that the rest of the week. while all this is going on tot is placed at table w/paper and pencil or crayon and tell her to do her school. usually draw a shape and then let her at it. she really thinks she's doing school. AND is the example remembering to raise hand and not interrup!

when middle one is done w/sheets /coloring/ give a letter formation sheet (clock face letters from SWR) then check on eldest and give her her cursive sheet (bargen how full the sheet needs to be till she's done) then I break to do lunch. the little one comes with me and send her to toys the middle one goes to finish his morning chores make bed, put toys away. then lunch then outside play. now what will I do with new baby?

 

I guess that is why God created slings!

 

I have not done all that in a few months as I am BIG w/child but I am pla?ing next year and I like how the kids liked their routine!

 

 

[Meadowlark]

Well, I have 5 kids ages 6, 4, 2, 1, and 3 mo. This is what worked for us last year with K and preK.

 

I had playtime for an hour each morning while I did school with the older two. During this time we did bible, and individual seat work type stuff, also reading aloud. I'd sit one at the table and one at the counter. It worked great.

 

Then we took a break until after lunch.After I put the toddlers to bed, we finished up. This was reading and math for my K, and the preK either joined in for math, or listened to stories on the iPad. This usually took 45 min.We also read again during this quiet time. Then they went into quiet time for an hour and I got a break! Again, worked great!

 

That's it in a nutshell. Could you have your youngest have playtime in his/her room while you combined the orders? or have each of the orders play with the you ger for 30 minutes while you worked with the other?

[sewingmama]

I'm schooling those grades right now. I mostly just combine them all and they work together... I don't really school them separately.

 

My 3yo (almost 4) usually gets up first and eats breakfast right away. I usually "school" him while waiting for the others to wake up and eat. We usually do a letter of the week type activity first. Then some type of fine motor activity because he needs work on that and read a book or two. That's his schooling done. After that he just joins in with the other two if something takes his interest.

 

I usually teach DD first otherwise I loose her attention and motivation for the day. I teach her math and reading and writing while the boys play together. Then I swap and teach DS while DD takes a break. Then we come together and do our combined subjects. Even though DS is officially K he is working at 1st grade level so I generally teach them spelling, LA, and all the content subjects together.

 

We usually school about 4 -5 hours a day including all the breaks and such.

 

For kids that close in age I wouldn't be using different curriculums. All 3 would be doing FIAR and OM for eg. not just the K 'r. My kids always want to do what the others are doing too. So I just choose 1 curriculum and they just do the appropriate levels. You will be going all day using different curriculums and your planning will take forever. So much easier just to choose one program and adjust it to meet everyone's needs and abilities. I see no reason your oldest can't join in with your 5yo to do FIAR if she wants to....it's fun.

[craftyerin]

This past year I had twin 4yos and a 5yo, so officially 2 in PK and one in K, although in reality, they're ability levels are more varied than that. We did FIve in a Row, all together, which covered Literature, History, Science, Art, and (very basic) Language Arts. I then did 3Rs in two groups. I did reading, handwriting and math with my Ker, and then those same subjects again with my twins. Most days all three of them all did the same lessons in math and handwriting, but I have to work with my Ker individually if I want cooperation. Their reading progress is all over the place, so I worked with everyone individually on that. Not sure if that makes sense all written out, so here's a sample day. I think something similar could work with yours.

 

Five in a Row with all, usually starting with reading the book aloud over breakfast and heading to our FIAR related activity immediately thereafter

dismiss 4yos to play and do 3Rs with Ker

dismiss Ker for the day, and call one PKer back to do reading

call in 2nd PKer, do math and handwriting with both PKers together

dismiss first PKer for the day, and do reading with final PKer

DONE!

 

Took us ~2.5 hours to accomplish that.

[HS Mom in NC]

Problem is oldest won't do HER work if sister is doing something different. She has to know what everyone else is doing and I've tried to put them in different rooms.

 

 

Mine are not 17, 15 and 7. The older two just finished being homeschooled and will be in college this fall. I'll just have one being homeschooled this year.

 

I would immediately put an end to the above. Your oldest needs to learn ASAP that you will decide what she will do-not her. Whether she does or doesn't know what siblings are doing is completely irrelevant to her doing what you tell her to when you tell her to. This is homeschool. In homeschool it's pretty common for all the children to be doing something different or to do some things differently and some things the same and some school all the kids together as it suits mom's educational philosophy, goals for the kids and any other practical issues that come into play. The kids also need to learn to work where you decide it works best for your homeschool as a whole. For some people that's everyone in the same room some or all of the time and for some that's separate rooms all the time. Based on what you wrote, they clearly are not ready for the option of working independently in another room by themselves-what early elementary school aged kid is?

 

My oldest was a very early reader (fluent by her 5th birthday-very unusual) and my middle didn't start learning to read until she was almost 7. We did Reading separately. My middle is a natural born Math whiz so we did math with both until a couple of years ago because my middle is waaay ahead in Math. She tested into college level Calculus. So those were done separately in the teen years. Logic (math oriented and argumentation) were done separately too-mostly independently because we used curriculum that was essentially like a teaching textbook. Bible, History, Literature, Civics, and Science were all combined most of the time. When they were early elementary school aged they were putting in 3 hours maximum split up over the day. Then the day had several read loud times sprinkled throughout.

 

Your children need one on one time with academics in early math, reading, and writing skills when they're ready for that. Some kids aren't ready until they're 7 or 8. Science and History can simply be reading aloud in the room while they play with quiet toys and then asking the oldest to narrate back what she heard. You can write it down and she can copy it for writing if she's ready for that.

 

Your younger two don't need academics now-it's purely optional. Whether you include the wee ones in academics or not young children need you to read aloud lovely high quality picture books and try some great literature with sort chapters while they play. Follow the reading aloud threads for specifics.

[Heartsjoy]

Tamarin 6 yo - 1st-ish Saxon, LOF, Mosaic w/ SOTW

Lemur 5 yo - K-ish EtC, FIAR, OM

Howler 4 yo - Trying to figure out her speech delay.....

Capuchin 6mo - Newly hatched

I've had 6,4,2 and then 7,5,3 for ages.

Each family's dynamics are so unique. It helped me the most to glean ideas from the threads from large families.

 

FIAR and OM I would do together for all three. I'd write out where the 5 and 6 year old are with narrations and what type of growth I'd like to see: Longer, more descriptive adjectives, topic and clincher sentences, complete sentences.

 

If the older needs SOTW, I'd let her listen to it on tape during quiet time or bedtime and possibly pick one hands on project that is just hers or that she wants to lead with her siblings maybe 3- 4 a year.

 

Now the what fits your kids part-

The emotional and connectedness needs drive what will work for your crew. If the six year old truly wants to do everything 5 year old is doing both at the big table with you plus two to four extra lessons a day (LOF, Saxon) while the rest play or during quiet time that wouldn't be bad unless the 5 year old is too distracted. It could work especially if you are demonstrating, or working like a fellow student between them, even working slightly behind to see if they can do the next step alone. You might need to do this twice a day 4 times a week aiming for at least 8-9 mini lessons a week; think 30 minutes for both the 5-6 year old and an extra 30-45 for the 6 year old either right after releasing the 5 year old to a quiet activity or during quiet time. If you have shorter more frequent learning sessions, it allows for more flexibility when life happens.

 

Maybe something like this:

 

8-9:30 breakfast and chores/ hygiene

9:30-10:30 FIAR/OM very simple, outside, living room,

10:30-11:00 both 5 and 6 year old ETC and any handwriting. This is where I might let the 4 year old watch a DVD,

11:00-11:30 6 year old LOF. Depending on how distracted the 6 year old is I might pull her close to me at a kitchen counter, even using a highchair or stool. I'd love the 4+5 year olds to play in a different room or even outside here. The biggest goal here is not the school work but for the 6 year old to concentrate for 10 minutes or even 5 minutes to begin with, to give you her best in order to join the others in whatever fun they're having.

11:30-1pm 6 year old finishes 5-10 minutes of independent work if needed near mom in kitchen who is preparing lunch, lunch, chores/ hygiene, play

1-2:30 quiet time for 4 year old and 6 month old; 1-1:45 ish quiet time for 6 year old, Grab 5 year old after putting 4 year old and 6 month down for quiet time for some work or just a special book 15-20 minutes. Keep this as long or as short as needs demand. Baby may need more, or maybe 6 year old needs a full hour of work or a special project.

1:45-2:30 5 year old has quiet time. Work 6 year old in Saxon and another small math or easy handwriting whatever is weakest

 

If these times seem long, I've padded them for the 10 - 15 minutes of interruptions and transitions that this age group deals with.

In other words, 9:30-10:30 FIAR might get 30-40 minutes of actual work.

 

If I ended up with speech homework with the 4 year old, I'd have to do it before breakfast and again 10 minutes of work before the 5 year old in the afternoon.

 

What made success for mine was staying home 4 days a week and having 8-9, 20-30 minute sessions of seatwork per week.

 

When quiet time was not working after a holiday or illness, I'd take a week and get that discipline back in place first before doing anything more than reading to them, chore training, or playing with each other skills.

 

Biggest Hugs as you test out what works for your crew,

Melody